Concept drawing of a proposed Islamic centre that was planned for a rural area in Bearspaw. A land redesignation request was shot down by Rocky View County council last week. Supplied photo

Proponents of a planned mosque and Islamic community centre in Bearspaw say all options are on the table including future challenges a week after a rural council shot down the proposal.

Ghazanfar Zafar of the Muslim Council of Calgary said the decision last Tuesday by Rocky View County to deny an application to rezone a plot of rural residential land to build a nearly 22,000-square-foot Islamic centre just west of Calgary’s city limits was made, at least in part, due to their faith, as opposed to any real issues with the proposal.

“There’s an elephant in the room that hasn’t been addressed, and that’s our faith,” Zafar said.

“We’ve long had this perception that they had already decided on it. It’s pretty clear to us that this is not about technical considerations.”

An administration report that went to Rocky View councillors last week recommended the plan, in the works since 2013, be denied, noting even though its master plan satisfied all “technical and operational concerns,” the project “does not demonstrate that it would provide a benefit to the local community and that it would be compatible with existing land uses.”

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The bid to change the 4.86-hectare parcel of rural residential land to one that would accommodate public service facilities was defeated 7-2.

Zafar said the mosque’s proponents were particularly stung by a late stream of correspondence from local residents opposed to the plan after the municipality doubled its range for community feedback, which saw the number of responses indicating opposition to the plan double to 50 from 25. Council received 14 letters in support of the project.

While most correspondents raised concerns about the impact of traffic, noise and impact on the area’s rural lifestyle, some were aimed directly at the religious affiliations of its applicants, who had offered up the space for community uses, including a planned gymnasium and sports fields.

“Are they going to relegate only certain minuscule portions of the building for the public? What kind of discrimination are we going to face from this community?” read one submission.

“How will the issue of their cultural background be addressed as far as Canadian men not speaking to their female members should there be encounters on the property?”

Zafar noted just two years ago the same council approved rezoning farmland about three kilometres northeast of the proposed mosque site for Middle Path Buddhist Temple of Calgary. He added the planned facility, which has seen the local Muslim community invest about $2 million, would serve some 313 Muslim residents in the surrounding postal code.

Rocky View Coun. Samanntha Wright, who declined to comment Monday, argued at last week’s hearing the temple isn’t remotely the same scale as the mosque, and there are likely better locations for the facility.

“This isn’t about religion, it’s about the right place and the right location at the right time,” she said in a public recording of the hearing.

“I do believe there are more suitable locations, even in the Bearspaw area, though that’s a slippery slope too.”

Coun. Kim McKylor was one of the two councillors who voted against the motion to reject the plan, and she said the area in question is a good fit for public services, including a mosque.

“I believe that fundamentally yes, whether that’s an Islamic centre or a Catholic church,” she said, noting the proposal for land use redesignation is much different from a development permit, which would ultimately address issues like traffic and drainage.

Zafar said the Muslim Council of Calgary, along with their partners in the project, the Islamic Association of Northwest Calgary, are now reviewing their options, noting the decision flies in the face of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“All options are on the table and I’m not in a position to discuss them at this point,” he said. “We don’t want to be whining, we just want to ensure they fully study this matter based on its merit.”

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